NEW DELHI, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- India's consumer inflation rose to 10.9 percent in October from 9.84 percent in September due largely to higher food prices, government data showed.
Separately, the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation on its website also announced the country's industrial output grew 2 percent in September year-on-year, which was below expectations, although better than August's revised 0.4 percent.
Corporate India did not think September's 2 percent increase in industrial output was enough to indicate an economic recovery, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The "modest increase" is not "reason enough for us to conclude that industry has turned the corner and is on a path to recovery," Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry, told PTI.
The manufacturing sector, which accounts for three-fourths of the index, grew only 0.6 percent in September.
The Wall Street Journal said the median estimate in its poll of 19 economists expected the September industrial output to rise by 3.6 percent.
"We don't see any decisive turnaround in India's growth story," D.K. Joshi, chief economist at the rating firm Crisil, told the Journal.
Referring to the inflation data he said it appeared "to be a bigger bugbear," as it might lead to another interest rate increase next month by the Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank. The bank increased its policy repo or lending rates by 0.25 percentage point both in September and October against the expectations of businesses.
The bright spot is that India's trade deficit, as announced earlier, fell to $10.56 billion in October, down 48 percent year-on-year, as exports picked up aided by a weak rupee. The October deficit numbers, however, were up from September's $6.76 billion
